Japan Electric Cable Export Continues Increasing in 1H

Japanese export value of electric wire and cable including optical fiber and cable increased by 15% to 145.288 billion yen in April-September 2006 from the same period of 2005, according to Japan Electric Wire & Cable Trading Association. The export maintained increasing trend from fiscal 2005 ended March 2006. The export especially increased by 30.7% for wires and cables for electric appliances, which represented more than 30% of total value. The largest importer was China which accounted for 21.4% in the total value.Japanese export of wires and cables for electric appliances was 49.627 billion yen in April-September 2006, 29.2% of which was bound for China. The value approached to 50 billion yen when the demand kept brisk and the unit price surged up due to increasing material costs.The export decreased by 24.3% for optical cable while increased by 20.1% for optical fiber in the period from a year ago. Japanese makers recently tend to export optical fiber and process it to optical cable at overseas sites.The electric wire and cable export was 31.126 billion yen for China, followed by 19.997 billion yen for the U.S.A. and 15.889 billion yen for Hong Kong in April-September 2006.